200 Parents, Students, Concerned Community Talk High School Sports

Image 1 of 4Tim E. Morris came to tell Superintendent Katie Kleier that the schools were being stripped of what makes education meaningful. He is a set builder for studios in Los Angeles, he said, adding that if the drain continues, he will take his students to schools off the hill.

Image 2 of 4The Frazier Mountain High School Booster Club is having an important meeting May 31 at 6:30 p.m. at Caveman Cavey's. They want everyone who cares about high school sports, the cheer team and drumline to come help select a new board and to join the fundraising nonprofit that can help fund next year's high school sports.(l-r) Lori Hallmark, Thelma Stephenson, Angelic Ager, Barbie Stowell, Lisa Johnson and president Kathy Parker are the current Booster Board. They put out an urgent call for new members to sign up Tuesday, May 31.

Image 3 of 4A crowd of 189 was counted, and then a dozen or so more straggled in for a community brainstorm about saving high school sports programs.

Image 4 of 4Kleier (r) did some research and came up with a way to possibly save $50,000 from the $81,000 cost of sports. Tim E. Morris said he was won over. He believes that the new superintendent might really care about helping maintain mountain spirit, and the high school sports program, after all.

Lebec (May 23, 2011 at 10 p.m.)–"The Mountain is all one big family," said Tim E. Morris at the end of a stormy meeting Monday, May 23. And everyone knows that family fights can be among the worst…especially when the subject is their kids’ sports. The gathering of parents, students, teachers, staff and the superintendent of El Tejon Unified School District came to talk about a proposal to eliminate the sports programs at Frazier Mountain High School in an effort to staunch a $1.3 million hemorrhage in the budget.

Superintendent Katie Kleier took some hits from the emotional group, but they also listened intently as she told about the long budgetary struggle ETUSD has endured. She told of the nine "IOUs" the state has left unpaid, and explained that what looks like "reserves" on the district budget is "paper money" owed by the state which has not yet been paid. Parents asked hard questions, but by the end of the evening they also appeared energized and committed to working together to build a fund to continue competitive league sports programs at the high school.

See the details in this week’s issue of The Mountain Enterprise.

This is part of the May 20, 2011 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.